Forget Me Not 1point5
by VincentGrimm
Summary: A short-story. Sephiroth meets himself with somewhat... trippy consequences
1. Chapter 1

Sephiroth awoke from his slumber with the grace of a cat. It took him a few moments to realise that he was, in fact, now completely awake. For a few moments he lay there, trying to figure out what it had been that he had been dreaming about, Yuffie lay at his side completely content in her subconscious. When nothing came to mind he rose to his feet and headed for the door; there were soft voices downstairs, it sounded like someone singing, he didn't recognise the voice and he knew that no burglar would sit around and sing, not when they should surely know the occupants of the house. Eventually Sephiroth decided that the wooden flooring of the house was distorting the voice vibrations and so, with equal grace as he had arisen, he headed out of the door and into the darkness of the hallway.

The house was quiet, with only the soft harmony of someone singing downstairs; now that he was closer Sephiroth could identify the voice as that of a man; but he still didn't recognise it. Dropping from the second floor, he hit the woodwork softly and ran, crouched, towards the door. Placing his ear against the woodwork Sephiroth could only hear a buzzing; the singing had stopped but there was still the odd vibration through the ancient oak door. There was nothing for it, he mused, and pushed the door open.

Stepping through Sephiroth found the room dark, there were no lights, nobody was sat at the piano but across the table sat....well at first he wasn't entirely sure what it was he was looking at; a glamour perhaps? Some form of magical entity? No, he felt sure of what he was looking at; it was himself.

Sephiroth the second was sat at the table, he was younger, dressed in a black coat with strange armour adorning his shoulders. There was no weapon in sight but Sephiroth knew his own power; a sword was just handy. "Ghost of Christmas past?" he queried with a chuckle. The other Sephiroth smiled too, and gestured for himself to sit down.

"Ghost of conscious past maybe" he replied; his voice was like the morning air of winter; as smooth as a fresh glass with the bite that was physical. This was not Sephiroth-current's voice, it was a memory to him and for the first time he was feeling what others had felt when they had faced him. Sephiroth sat across from his past, placing his hands on the table. Despite being half-naked he found the room rather warm, he was sure that this was something to do with the fact that he must still be asleep, wrapped up in bed, snuggled next to Yuffie who had a fiery temperament that even kept the bed warm.

"You were singing?" Sephiroth current smiled "I never imagined you would sing, or should I say I?"

"You were not singing, not now and not then, that was the planet I channelled to you; the planet you live in these days is a far cry from mine. It is a harmonious place where you can coexist with your lessers; very pretty" a cold smile twitched his soft lips "Imagine me in a world like that, all our power, all your new found focus and all my mind; isn't it beautiful?"

"It's creepy" Sephiroth replied "And it would never happen. You are the world's nightmare, I am the planets hope; I am one of the few who can really hear it and so I know where exactly the problems lie and I'm making it my job to sort it out. A healthy planet is a healthy population, Mr. Past"

"Your sunny attitude breaks the very ice of my soul. Please rescue me from damnation oh-holy brother" Sephiroth past mocked, slumping in his chair and raising his hand to his forehead. He sat up with speed that even Sephiroth-current almost missed.

"I regret to inform you that in light of your current situation, I much prefer your sunny attitude to only be used when setting objects alight; do you understand? Mr. Present, as it were" he smiled "Maybe you don't want to, in fact I'm very sure you don't want to. Nothing to break your new-found lovely life; well I regret to inform you that you have to kill everyone you know because I want you to. And I get what I want because I am you, you are me, and I am the stronger" he grabbed Sephiroth and dragged him half way over the table to meet him standing. They were so close Sephiroth-current could actually smell the scent of the manor when he had first come there; damp and phosphors used in the lamps in the cellar; all reminiscent of his past.

"You see Mr. Present; I am the stronger psyche, I was far too strong before they upstairs beat us. Then you got your powers back; woo-hoo! But regretfully you're not as strong as me because you're good. Good never prevails over evil" Sephiroth-past smiled but so did Sephiroth-Present

"Wow...I really had an ego" he laughed, "You really think you can swan into my consciousness and take control? Remember I have your memories, I know it all and I choose to say no. I say no to you then and I say to you now" he waved mockingly "Bye-bye Bad Mr. Sephiroth. You are just a memory and I'm going back to bed"

Sephiroth-Past grabbed Sephiroth current by his hair and smoothly, yet completely viciously, ran his face into the tabletop. He released his later self, allowing him to slide off the table onto the floor in a heap. "Hello reality!" Sephiroth Past said waving his hands in the air. He sighed as he reached under the table with one hand. It didn't take much effort, Sephiroth current noticed, for his past-self to flip the table end-over-end into the wall with a deafening crash that would have woken the others; something told him that wasn't going to happen.

He got to his feet and faced himself who stepped over the bits of broken table with devilish-grace. Rounding on himself, Sephiroth raised his hands for combat; he had been good in the past but now he had Tifa's training on-top of what he'd known. "Ohh, physical combat; in a dream do you think you can hurt yourself?" Sephiroth past crossed his arms and frowned

"You can hurt me, I can hurt you!" Sephiroth said as he stepped forwards and punched himself.

The thing about a time paradox is that no-one _really_ knows what's going to happen. Sephiroth-current surely didn't, but got a not-so-pleasant surprise when he learnt that punching yourself....really is punching yourself.

As the double vision started, in one mind Sephiroth saw himself punching the other version of himself, while in his mind he also saw himself being punched by himself. When both minds collided; Sephiroth hit the floor.

Groaning, the half-naked Sephiroth could only see white flashing lights that danced on the ceiling. A head appeared over him, white hair dropping down either side of his face. "Now that was a weird scene" his past self commented, he reached down and lifted Sephiroth into a sitting position. Dragging two chairs towards them, Sephiroth past placed his future self into one of them and sighed as he sat himself down.

"I think you now understand one of the rules of this; you can't hurt me. I am you so you are basically hurting yourself" he tapped his future self on the head "And I can hurt you. Because I am not you. I am just your mind" Sephiroth groaned; he was irritating, well had been irritating.

"Don't you ever stop talking?" he asked

"Yes, when I finish taking over your mind" Sephiroth-past smiled "You know, the bit when I wake up next to Yuffie, snap her neck, get out of bed and go beat the hell out of your family; that is when I stop talking"

"Not going to happen, eventually something in the house will wake me up then this will all finish; that's how nightmares go" Sephiroth-current pointed out

"Yes" the past agreed "But _who_ will wake in that bed?"

"I covered that with me" Sephiroth current said getting to his feet, "In fact, I'm going back to bed, right now" he turned for the door and threw it open only to find himself re-entering the room by the other doorway.

"Now that could be a problem" Sephiroth past said, running his fingers through his hair. Sephiroth entered the room to find everything covered in a fine layer of ash. Through the domed roof red light speared through the darkness; he was back at the point of meteor descending upon the earth.

"Memories" Sephiroth-past sung mockingly "How far back are you willing to go? Back to the crash? Oh, wait, we've already passed that! You're floating somewhere in that cave, about to be fired towards the surface at an inhuman speed; but then again that's our life; inhumanity"

"Why are you taking me back?" Sephiroth-current rounded on himself, roaring angrily

"Back we go! Or should I say back _you_ go" replied himself "I can take you back as far as the very-old days, back at the academy…now imagine that. You back then with all the memories you have now. All the good ones removed of course; I think I'll leave you with mine"

Sephiroth shook his head; if he resurfaced twenty years earlier with all the power and knowledge he had gained over those years he would be an unstoppable force; sweeping across the planet like a plague of death and forbidden magic. No-one could stand up to him as he was everything, he had the planet's details stored in his head; he could stop Cloud Strife from ever being release. He could kill Avalanche when they first began their planning stage; no-body could stop him as he had the blue-prints of the future.

"Now that train of thought I like" Sephiroth past smiled "'_a plague of death and forbidden magic' _poetry so true"

Above them the life-stream blossomed, white light swept through the manor as the blue/white magic tore through the sky only feet above the roof. Sephiroth-current looked up; out there his friends and family were close to dying, in fact he himself was dying somewhere but the white magic was so pure, clean and cleansing.

"Oh do I hate the lifestream" Sephiroth-past cradled his head in his hands "It sounds so nice, its song it all good-fortune and life to all"

"Yes, it really is" Sephiroth-current smiled

"Don't you start getting any ideas; I have plans for you" he wagged a cold, warning finger at his future self

"The life stream has plans for me" Sephiroth-current smiled; and vanished.

"Treacherous bloody…" Sephiroth past was about to shout when he too vanished from existence.

The Lifestream


	2. Chapter 2

The trip to the lifestream was a fast-paced, rollercoaster ride through a million different spectrums of colours and feelings. Sephiroth-current slid into the glowing white liquid and looked around. He had thought to arrive in some kind of dream world, like Cloud had when he had fallen, but instead he floated in the stream itself. All around him there were currents of different colours sweeping out to various points on the planet.

The stream was warm, much like the bed he was missing, and felt only about as heavy as the water in a bath. Looking around some more, Sephiroth tried to see into the distance but in no direction could he see anything solid. For miles and miles there was nothing but lifestream.

A sudden change in the tide told Sephiroth that his other half had arrived. The thought suddenly secured as something span past him, fitting and shouting in rage. Sephiroth-past came to a halt looking in the wrong direction but quickly turned to see his present-self.

"You traitorous whelp!" he snapped "Do you have any idea how long we remain here before hitting earth again?? YEARS!" he aimed a kick at Sephiroth but managed nothing except floating through.

"We aren't corporeal, feel free to lash out" Sephiroth present chuckled "You can't do anything here"

"This is still your nightmare, so I have the power" Sephiroth past clenched his fist with the intent to draw upon his ancient powers. Nothing came.

"I thought as much" Sephiroth smirked "Regrettably, we are _actually here_, Lost in the life stream"

"It passes over the boarders between life and death" Sephiroth-past sighed "Of course that extends to dream sequences"

"Unlucky, I guess we have time to kill" Sephiroth lay back as though on a deck chair, drawing his hands behind his head and smiling as they floated through the stream.

"Boarder coming up" Sephiroth-past noted casually. Sephiroth looked behind him just in time to see the current change colour. The waters became a deeper grey and suddenly Sephiroth felt the vicious biting cold. As both consciousness fell into the stream the world flickered a million different colours and they both felt the world shift.

Manor

Sephiroth managed to direct himself home. The pure thought and determination in his mind drove them back through the billions of chances back to the Manor. Emerging from the fridge, Sephiroth turned the moment his feet touched stone floor and slammed the open refrigerator closed.

The action had the exact consequence he expected. Seconds later something inside the fridge crashed with a startled cry.

"That is so childish!" a voice roared a moment before the door was kicked open and a disgruntled nightmare stepped out.

"This is a dream, whatever I do doesn't happen in life" Sephiroth chuckled as he walked from the room into the entrance hall. With the Nightmare behind him (who now had much less ego thanks to a quick lifestream trip) Sephiroth headed back to his room. Pushing open the door slightly, Sephiroth snuck inside. He attempted to lock his nightmare out but he simply stepped _through_ the door.

"Will you go away? I want to sleep. I'm bored of you already" Sephiroth hissed to the nightmare who merely shrugged.

"This is strange" a third voice said. Looking to the bed, a Third-Sephiroth lay in bed covered by many blankets. Next to him Yuffie slept soundly.

"What? You're me!" Sephiroth first gasped "How can we be separate?"

"We're in his dream now" the nightmare laughed "Too far back"

"Who are you two?" the third asked

"I'm you from the future and this dick is the past you. Ignore everything he says, it is bound to be evil, twisted and bloody unhelpful" number one said pushing the nightmare out of the room. In a blur the Nightmare stepped back through the door, straightening his coat.

"Ignore him" he waved the half-naked Sephiroth aside "He's the pacifist side to you. The side that will never get Tifa to love you"

Sephiroth the third looked from one to the other.

"Quite honestly…" the third sighed "I'm clearly insane, go away"

"Just so you know; Tifa's dead and Yuffie is going to make you fall in love with her then cheat on you with your own father" the nightmare bowed, grabbing Sephiroth first by his hair before he could say anything and hurling him against the wall.

Vanishing through it, they emerged back in the dining room; back in the Nightmares realm.


	3. Chapter 3

Sephiroth felt dizzy and ill, the fall turned him this way and that until suddenly he was sat down. Looking around Sephiroth recognised that he was in the basement of the manor. They were back in the nightmare. He knew because (although he was now dressed in a soft grey tracksuit that was warm) he was sat on a three-legged milking stool facing the large desk, behind which sat the Nightmare in the large red winged chair. He had his fingers steepled and was looking over them at Sephiroth; like a headmaster looking at a naughty pupil.

Sephiroth was about to get to his feet when, from out of his sight line, an animal emerged. At first Sephiroth didn't clock the animal but suddenly looked down as it passed him and stopped, chewing on a fallen book. It was a goat, a black goat with a white spot on its crown. Looking back, Sephiroth had noticed that the Nightmare didn't even take notice of the farm-animal. Sephiroth opened his mouth to ask a question but the Nightmare got there first.

"We do not question the goat" he stated

Sephiroth looked back at the goat who had grown several inches in the few seconds he had looked away. Its eyes were dark and endless, as though Sephiroth was looking through its very head.

"The affliction of the smurf's has never had an effect on the economy until this spring" the Goat said.

Sephiroth, despite finding the goat's sentence baffling, was more concerned that it was speaking to him.

"How…?"

"We do not question the goat" the Nightmare repeated firmly. Sephiroth looked from the Nightmare back to the goat and started in surprise.

The goat was taller again, now approximately five feet high and was now a dashing metallic-purple; it's eyes remaining black and the animal had moved much closer to Sephiroth; its nose was almost touching him.

"Do not turn your back on the potted geranium" the Goat whispered "If you think he's bad, then the gum-tree will prove most susceptible to your faux-leather chaps"

Sephiroth said nothing, not wanting to "question the goat" and instead just stared at the animal. The Nightmare had barely moved since they had reappeared.

Taking a chance, Sephiroth twirled off the stool, turning his back on the Nightmare and the goat and ran down the corridor. He only took a step before he noticed that the room was round; the hall gone.

Turning back he was stunned into silence. The Nightmare now sat on the goats back casually holding a large red book labeled "The undeniable untruth of nothing in particular"; the goat now roughly the size of a horse and a peculiar lilac colour.

"We must go, the apocalypse is soon" the Goat vanished with a soft 'pop' leaving a hole in the air.

Sephiroth, utterly bamboozled, stepped towards the hole in the air. He smiled; he could see his bed, his Yuffie and best of all; he wasn't there.

Stepping through, Sephiroth slipped under the covers and sighed; there was nothing like home. He took a few moments to look around; he was certainly home; it all felt correct and warm. As he slowly fell back to sleep a shadow moved but Sephiroth didn't stir, it was a familiar shape and he would much rather ignore it; _maybe it would go away?_

The Nightmare of himself began to hum a tune as the Goat tapped its hoofed heel against the floor in rhythm. Sephiroth remained still, knowing they would go away eventually if he ignored them. Rather than going away the Nightmare drew a guitar from thin air, plugging it into the wall and striking a powerful chord that reverberated through the house and would have woken the dead; let alone everyone in Nibleheim. The nightmare began to play a soft and familiar tune as the goat began to sing softly "I love you baby, but all I can think about is; Kielbasa sausage, your butt-cheeks is warm" Sephiroth looked over at the oddest pair he had ever seen. The goat now glowing a soft green while his Nightmare sat on what was undeniably a tall bar-stool clutching an acoustic guitar. "I checked my dipstick, you need lubrication honey, my Kielbasa sausage just has to perform... now get it on!" as the Nightmare began to get into the song Sephiroth finally snapped "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he bellowed sitting up in bed. Next to him, Yuffie screamed as she sat up and looked around wildly. For a few moments Sephiroth could see the dark holes that were the goats eyes but they soon faded as did the pattern of the goat.

"Sephiroth you mentalist!" Yuffie shouted before lowering her voice "What the _hell_ are you playing at?"

"Nightmare" Sephiroth lay back, placing his hand over his eyes; that dream had made little sense but he knew that he never wanted to go back to how he was. As for the goat...

... he didn't bother trying to contemplate _that_.

~Fin~


End file.
